1. LOCALHOST is a game where you wipe hard drives. In a life before my list-based review blog paid the bills, I had been known to do some IT work so you'd figure I'd be really good at a game like this. And you are totally right. I kicked this game's ass.
2. The setup is your boss at your new job sends you a message saying he needs you to wipe four hard drives.The twist is that these aren't just any hard drives but the hard drives for sentient ro-bots.
3. You play by inserting these hard drives into the one ro-bot body that's in your shop. The AIs talk to you and you get a list of responses you can respond w/. Your goal is ostensibly to convince these AI to let you delete them. Unsurprisingly, not all of them are terribly keen on this.
4. The general plot revolves around an AI called Local who may or may not have once resided in the female-type ro-bot body you have in the shop. All the other AIs seem to know Local or maybe even be Local. One of them claims to have been human at one point. You have no absolute way of knowing which of the AIs is telling the truth if any of them are.
5. This whole thing could have been presented w/ only unadorned text, Zork-style, but thankfully it is not.
6. I say thankfully because the music is outstanding. I don't know how many of my fine, fine readers survived the 90s w/ memories intact but if you did you may recall an electronic group called Orbital and a rock band called Radiohead. The music in LOCALHOST evokes these two acts at various places throughout the game and w/o it, it just wouldn't be the same. This is a game that leans heavily on its soundtrack to create mood and player engagement and it's right to do so.
7. Its visuals are effective but not quite as striking. All of the AIs are placed in the same female-type ro-bot body so, of course, they all look the same but they do have different colored eyes and each of them holds the female-type body in a different posture. They don't really do anything aside from sort of sway in the breeze though and I think it'd be nice if they exhibited some sort of body language, esp. since so much of this game seems to be trying to figure out to what degree these AIs are manipulating you.
8. But why on earth should you expect an AI in a ro-bot body to have the same tells as a human being that's lying to you? Why do you make an AI look like a human being female at all? Actually, LOCALHOST deals w/ a lot of these types of questions. You've got these AIs that seem to be able to interact w/ humans on a level indistinguishable from that of humans one of which claims to be copied from an actual human intelligence. What right of it of yours to obliterate these AIs?
9. This might sound a little Ethics of Computing 101 and, frankly, it is but LOCALHOST putting you in the driver's seat makes these issue seem more palpable and ethically fuzzy than they would if they were presented as a film or short story so it brings you back to these old questions w/ a fresh set of eyes.
10. As you progress, some of the AIs will try to convince you to copy them to the network, effectively saving their lives--if they are, indeed alive. It is not said outright but it feels very clear that this is something you are absolutely not allowed to do. You also get the impression that some of the AIs may well be computer viruses that could possibly cause some sort of unknown havoc if they do make it to the network. You can pick and chose who gets wiped and who gets copied to the network but it does not always go how you planned.
11. Repeat playthroughs are necessary to get the results you want. Most of the choices you make have story-related consequences and some of the AIs come across very differently depending on how you've treated them. One playthrough you might wish you could have saved a certain AI and then playing through another time, you might find yourself wondering why you were trying to save them to begin w/.
12. Unfortunately, you can't skip through dialog you've already read in previous playthroughs so if you are a completionist, you're in for a bit of a headache.
13. This is the kind of game that smart people play and enjoy... So I hate it! Or maybe I don't. Maybe I'm impressed w/ how well the developers created a believable world w/ such minimal presentation. Maybe I'm excited how LOCALHOST uses game-play elements to breath new life in to old debates about the nature of artificial intelligence. Maybe I thought that, in addition to all this, this game was just a pleasant way to spend an evening. All these questions and no way to know for sure.
Friday, April 27, 2018
Thursday, April 26, 2018
13 Points on DuckTales: Remastered - WayForward Technologies - 2013 [PC]
1. I somehow missed this remaster of 1989's DuckTales when it came out. I discovered it only five years after release despite the fact it's a remake of a game I loved as a kid that was made by a developer I love an adult. I honestly kinda wish I had missed it altogether. It is really not that great.
2. I was going to try to criticize DuckTales: Remastered as if the original didn't exit but, really, it's so impacted by nostalgia that you simply can't ignore it. You get the feeling at least someone wanted to push the gameplay from the original game to a new places but the whole process was held up, seemingly out of fear to leave anything from the original game out.
3. The soft-chewy center of this is, in fact, the original game. All five levels are here. They vary a little bit in layout and structure but, you know, lose enough. Some fan people will pick nits but who has time for that?
4. The graphics look great, detailed 2D sprites on bright, beautiful 3D rendered graphics. There is a WayForward touch to it but all the Disney characters are rendered true to the show. The general vibe I get is that this is what the NES game would have looked like if they could have made a game that looked like this on the NES.
5. I will confess to missing the original music much more than the original graphics. The songs are all there but those old chip sounds play my heart like an eight bit fiddle. For what it's worth, what they did was pretty excellent. It's got a great synthesized sound and they've utilized the additional sonic space modern technology allows to develop themes and motifs between the different songs. It's great stuff and I like it a lot but I still fear change. Shoot me.
6. If that was it for the game, it'd be great. Call it a lazy up-port if you want but I think this is what most people actually want out of a remaster.
7. The only issue that comes from not changing anything is that all of the levels are pretty long and, on higher difficulties, don't have any checkpoints. No individual section is all that hard, you just have to get through w/o making mistakes. It's exhilarating the moment you finally manage to finish a long level followed by a reasonably tough pattern-based boss but there is a lot of tedious replay to get to that one moment.
8. Oh, that and because you can play the levels in any order, there's no way to really have a difficulty curve. Every other problem stems from all the crap they added.
9. The most egregious issue is the endless cut scenes. I didn't really feel like I needed an explanation of why Scrooge McDuck was going off collecting treasures when the original came out and I definitely don't need it now. They are mostly voiced by the original actors from the series and so could have been a great asset to the game but they are just so long and so unnecessary that I found myself skipping them even on my first playthrough. The fact that the characters aren't animated at all when they speak doesn't help either.
10. As part of the set-up, they added a tutorial level. I guess this okay but, you know, this is a game that still uses two buttons and the d-pad. Just give some prompts on the first level people chose to play and I think that's about good.
11. They also added a final boss level, complete w/ a Metroid-style escape scene. This was actually cool so no complaints here. The original sort of lacked a satisfying finish to it so this is a welcome addition.
12. This Metroid bit really got me thinking to what they might have done w/ the franchise rather than just slapping the old game between a couple new levels. Capcom's DuckTales was clearly built on Mega Man DNA, which they adapted to fit the license and for a younger audience. In the same vein, I wish WayForward would have taken their Metroid-vania franchise, Shantae, and fit DuckTails into that framework. Keep the updated graphics and music. Keep the level themes but rework them into something new. That would have been a fun game to play.
13. Really, just generally, I feel like something is holding DuckTales: Remastered back. It keeps the original levels and adds the original voice actors from the show, all seemingly out service to the fans, but the whole thing never really congeals into anything special. It just feels like a bunch of old stuff mashed together. The voice-work shows this did at least have some kind of money behind it. The new levels indicate a willingness to try something new but it wasn't taken far enough and the end result is a game stuck between being a straight remaster and a full reboot and seems unable to deliver what you'd want out of either.
2. I was going to try to criticize DuckTales: Remastered as if the original didn't exit but, really, it's so impacted by nostalgia that you simply can't ignore it. You get the feeling at least someone wanted to push the gameplay from the original game to a new places but the whole process was held up, seemingly out of fear to leave anything from the original game out.
3. The soft-chewy center of this is, in fact, the original game. All five levels are here. They vary a little bit in layout and structure but, you know, lose enough. Some fan people will pick nits but who has time for that?
4. The graphics look great, detailed 2D sprites on bright, beautiful 3D rendered graphics. There is a WayForward touch to it but all the Disney characters are rendered true to the show. The general vibe I get is that this is what the NES game would have looked like if they could have made a game that looked like this on the NES.
5. I will confess to missing the original music much more than the original graphics. The songs are all there but those old chip sounds play my heart like an eight bit fiddle. For what it's worth, what they did was pretty excellent. It's got a great synthesized sound and they've utilized the additional sonic space modern technology allows to develop themes and motifs between the different songs. It's great stuff and I like it a lot but I still fear change. Shoot me.
6. If that was it for the game, it'd be great. Call it a lazy up-port if you want but I think this is what most people actually want out of a remaster.
7. The only issue that comes from not changing anything is that all of the levels are pretty long and, on higher difficulties, don't have any checkpoints. No individual section is all that hard, you just have to get through w/o making mistakes. It's exhilarating the moment you finally manage to finish a long level followed by a reasonably tough pattern-based boss but there is a lot of tedious replay to get to that one moment.
8. Oh, that and because you can play the levels in any order, there's no way to really have a difficulty curve. Every other problem stems from all the crap they added.
9. The most egregious issue is the endless cut scenes. I didn't really feel like I needed an explanation of why Scrooge McDuck was going off collecting treasures when the original came out and I definitely don't need it now. They are mostly voiced by the original actors from the series and so could have been a great asset to the game but they are just so long and so unnecessary that I found myself skipping them even on my first playthrough. The fact that the characters aren't animated at all when they speak doesn't help either.
10. As part of the set-up, they added a tutorial level. I guess this okay but, you know, this is a game that still uses two buttons and the d-pad. Just give some prompts on the first level people chose to play and I think that's about good.
11. They also added a final boss level, complete w/ a Metroid-style escape scene. This was actually cool so no complaints here. The original sort of lacked a satisfying finish to it so this is a welcome addition.
12. This Metroid bit really got me thinking to what they might have done w/ the franchise rather than just slapping the old game between a couple new levels. Capcom's DuckTales was clearly built on Mega Man DNA, which they adapted to fit the license and for a younger audience. In the same vein, I wish WayForward would have taken their Metroid-vania franchise, Shantae, and fit DuckTails into that framework. Keep the updated graphics and music. Keep the level themes but rework them into something new. That would have been a fun game to play.
13. Really, just generally, I feel like something is holding DuckTales: Remastered back. It keeps the original levels and adds the original voice actors from the show, all seemingly out service to the fans, but the whole thing never really congeals into anything special. It just feels like a bunch of old stuff mashed together. The voice-work shows this did at least have some kind of money behind it. The new levels indicate a willingness to try something new but it wasn't taken far enough and the end result is a game stuck between being a straight remaster and a full reboot and seems unable to deliver what you'd want out of either.
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
13 Points on Rayman Origins - Ubisoft - 2011 [PC]
2. The music in this game is insane. Whoever played the kazoo on this should have won a Grammy.
3. I was not crazy about the controls. They were tight and responsive but I thought the design felt a little strange. For one, you can do a little extra high flip jump if you jump while switching directions (like in say Mario 64 or NSMB) but I never once did it intentionally and found myself dying in many sections when I did it accidentally. Also, Rayman can spin his ears and hover upon the second press of the jump button. To me, it would have felt more natural if this occurred upon holding the jump button. It all worked out in the end but I do feel this could have been fine tuned a bit better.
4. There is some sort of story to this. I think it is the same story as Sonic the Hedgehog or Mario games. You need to go to the right for some reason.
6. Why no exit to desktop option while in game, Ubisoft!?
7. The levels are overall good and well designed but there are few controller chucking moments where things just feel all together cheap.
8. The shmup style levels are the best thing ever. Normally when you have levels that are outside the standard gameplay mechanic, they feel tacked on and half-finished. These feel like the best shmup levels I've played in a year.
9. I want an all shmup, all the time Rayman. Make it happen!
10. I felt like the ordinary worlds could use more bosses. You get bosses on the last four worlds and a final boss and but only after going through a long boss-free stretch and that's kind of lame. The world one boss is frequently one of the most memorable things about a game and Ubisoft neglected to have one here. Boo to that, I say!
11. You can unlock like a hundred different characters to play w/. Or, in my case, you can unlock the characters and not play w/ them.
12. This does that annoying thing platformers started doing in the nineties and never stopped doing where you can beat the whole game but still haven't beat it because you didn't collect every last thing you were supposed to collect. I kind of dig this gives you a sort of chose-your-own-difficulty option but also don't dig it because 100%ing this kind of thing gets really boring. Sorry you had to hear it from me.
13. Not gonna lie--there were moments of this that were frustrating enough I wanted to put it down entirely and just say screw it. In the end though, the parts of this that are fun are so fun that it's worth playing through the parts that are not fun. A little more polish w/r/t difficulty spikes and on the controls and this is something close to a perfect game.
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
13 Points on Tiny Echo - Might and Delight - 2017 [PC]
1. Tiny Echo's title implies it's a small game--and it is. It sets its stage quickly then you get to explore it for a while and then your done. While not some sprawling experience, it still manages to rope you into its strange little world for the time you're there. It is a small game but still complete.
2. The main character is a sweet little figure w/ an eyeball for a head. The developers call this character Emi. I call her Creepy Red Riding Hood.
3. The story begins like so: a bunch of letters float across a wasteland full of decrepit looking humanoids into a small working chamber occupied by a sleeping Creepy Red Riding Hood. She awakes, places the letters into a satchel and sets out on foot for a purpose yet unknown.
4. Well... not exactly unknown. If it wasn't clear from the setup, it is obvious that the general goal here is to deliver these letters from the very first room you enter. This is not really about delivering letters though. The letters on their own are just a reason. What they are a reason for is to explore Tiny Echo's twisted and beautiful little world.
5. In 2017, Cuphead garnered a lot of attention for looking like a cartoon come to life. If you ask me, Tiny Echo captured this same feeling to much less fanfare. The graphics are hand drawn and wonderfully detailed. Any given frame of gameplay could easily be a work of art in its own right.
6. The style has an edge of cuteness to it but its mood is still strange and mildly foreboding. The world itself is dreary and seems on the verge of decay. Its inhabitants are fox-like and mostly indifferent to you. There is no place in it that seems truly comfortable.
7. The music fits w/ this perfectly. It feels generally darkly atmospheric but with all kinds of fun and sometimes unexpected jazzy little touches that bring each area to life. The soundtrack is by a person who goes by the name Mount West (not to be confused w/ Mountain's Leslie West) and has already gotten a few spins by me after I've played through the game. Give it a listen if you like to listen to music.
8. This definitely has an influence from old point-and-click adventure games but the puzzles in this tend to be quite a bit less involved. You have no inventory or any way to hold on items and nearly all the puzzles are contained w/in one area.
9. Realistically, every puzzle in Tiny Echo is solved by just clicking on everything that seems clickable.
10. This is fine. This is not really a game about solving puzzles. It's about exploring the world and doing so is evokes a real sense of wonder. Tiny Echo is not large but the whole thing feels lived-in and real. What keeps you pushing through is not the need to best the next set of challenges but simply to see what else there is and what changes occur.
11. Do not try to put this down halfway through and comeback a few days later on your first playthrough. You will come back w/ no idea what's going on. A big part of it is just remembering where you've already been. I'd actually go as far to recommend you block out an hour and a half or so to get it all in in one sitting. Come on. You're worth it.
12. You can actually beat it much faster than that once you know what all you have to do. Tiny Echo is not exactly speed-running fodder but I suppose you could if you wanted to.
13. The ultimate goal developers Might and Delight had w/ Tiny Echo seems to be world building and, in that, I think they succeeded completely. Neither your goals nor the setting are particularly well explained but nevertheless the game maintains the elusive quality of feeling believable. It has an internal logic you intuit on from the beginning and is genuinely an interesting place to be.
2. The main character is a sweet little figure w/ an eyeball for a head. The developers call this character Emi. I call her Creepy Red Riding Hood.
3. The story begins like so: a bunch of letters float across a wasteland full of decrepit looking humanoids into a small working chamber occupied by a sleeping Creepy Red Riding Hood. She awakes, places the letters into a satchel and sets out on foot for a purpose yet unknown.
4. Well... not exactly unknown. If it wasn't clear from the setup, it is obvious that the general goal here is to deliver these letters from the very first room you enter. This is not really about delivering letters though. The letters on their own are just a reason. What they are a reason for is to explore Tiny Echo's twisted and beautiful little world.
5. In 2017, Cuphead garnered a lot of attention for looking like a cartoon come to life. If you ask me, Tiny Echo captured this same feeling to much less fanfare. The graphics are hand drawn and wonderfully detailed. Any given frame of gameplay could easily be a work of art in its own right.
6. The style has an edge of cuteness to it but its mood is still strange and mildly foreboding. The world itself is dreary and seems on the verge of decay. Its inhabitants are fox-like and mostly indifferent to you. There is no place in it that seems truly comfortable.
7. The music fits w/ this perfectly. It feels generally darkly atmospheric but with all kinds of fun and sometimes unexpected jazzy little touches that bring each area to life. The soundtrack is by a person who goes by the name Mount West (not to be confused w/ Mountain's Leslie West) and has already gotten a few spins by me after I've played through the game. Give it a listen if you like to listen to music.
8. This definitely has an influence from old point-and-click adventure games but the puzzles in this tend to be quite a bit less involved. You have no inventory or any way to hold on items and nearly all the puzzles are contained w/in one area.
9. Realistically, every puzzle in Tiny Echo is solved by just clicking on everything that seems clickable.
10. This is fine. This is not really a game about solving puzzles. It's about exploring the world and doing so is evokes a real sense of wonder. Tiny Echo is not large but the whole thing feels lived-in and real. What keeps you pushing through is not the need to best the next set of challenges but simply to see what else there is and what changes occur.
11. Do not try to put this down halfway through and comeback a few days later on your first playthrough. You will come back w/ no idea what's going on. A big part of it is just remembering where you've already been. I'd actually go as far to recommend you block out an hour and a half or so to get it all in in one sitting. Come on. You're worth it.
12. You can actually beat it much faster than that once you know what all you have to do. Tiny Echo is not exactly speed-running fodder but I suppose you could if you wanted to.
13. The ultimate goal developers Might and Delight had w/ Tiny Echo seems to be world building and, in that, I think they succeeded completely. Neither your goals nor the setting are particularly well explained but nevertheless the game maintains the elusive quality of feeling believable. It has an internal logic you intuit on from the beginning and is genuinely an interesting place to be.
Friday, April 13, 2018
13 Points on Dreaming Sarah - Asteristic Game Studio - 2015 [PC]
1. Dreaming Sarah is a quick and thoughtful game that you can play in one evening w/o getting too crazy w/ the caffeine. Unless you want to. That's your choice, people.
2. It looks like an old-school platformer at first glance but it's really more of an adventure game--sort of a less-action oriented take on the Legend of Zelda formula.
3. The retro vibe comes in part from its pixel art graphic style. If it came out today, I'd say the art was heavily inspired by Undertale but the reality is that Dreaming Sarah actually came out six months before Undertale. Still, we are looking at low-res, bit-era inspired graphics w/ some modern touches here and there for the sake of style.
4. The music is so central to this experience that the composer, Anthony Septim, is mentioned by name before the game starts and nobody else is, not even the person who designed and programmed the thing. Septim's takes influence from music contemporary to the games that inspired its graphical style but it is really quite different from the music you'd expect to hear in those games. It's 90s music but not 90s game music. Suffice to say breakbeats and warm synths are abound. It sounds great and could easily stand alone w/o the game.
5. Dreaming Sarah really just pops you right into things w/o taking any time to explain things. You wake up on a platform in what appears to be some sort of woods.You not given any sort of direction as far as where to go or what you need to do.
6. I've played Metroid before so my first instinct in this situation is to head left. Let us just say that I think the developers of this game have also played Metroid.
7. Or maybe not--one of the better qualities Dreaming Sarah has is that many of its interlaced tasks can be completed in different orders. Of course, access to certain areas is restricted by collecting key items so there is a good deal of linearity to it but you get to do a lot of free-roaming and it seldom feels unproductive.
8. The many varied landscapes featured throughout the game really help w/ this. The whole thing is broadly surreal but some sections more so than others. As mentioned, you start in an only slightly-strange seeming forest but your adventure brings you to slightly strange seeming beaches and very strange looking underworlds, underwater caves and so forth. Every section has a different vibe to it--the music helps a lot--and that keeps the exploration from feeling repetitive.
9. Dreaming Sarah has found a way to make water levels not annoying: it turns you into a fish.
10. Story-wise, there is not much here. There is a brief description what's going on if you look at the game's webpage but that info is not really in the game. You are in this dream world and there is only one thing that it is clear you need to do: go further. Eventually, you get a rudimentary explanation of why you were deposited in this magical forest but that is fairly deep in the game.
11. To me, this feels very much like the kind of game you reach for the controller to play but I guess it was designed for keyboard. Even w/ the controller plugged in, you still get prompted for keyboard key presses. It's kind of weird but the controller layout was intuitive enough it didn't matter.
12. There was one puzzle in this I couldn't solve because I didn't realize there was a puzzle to be solved. That was kinda annoying. The rest of the puzzling is satisfying as far as it goes though. The challenge is more in remembering key places and trying new things as you find new items than anything that requires a serious brain bending.
13. I don't know what any given person might want out of Dreaming Sarah but it delivered what I wanted from it to me. It is a place to lose yourself in for a few hours and a fulfilling experience overall. It relies on a sense of adventure alone to keep it going w/o much in the way of action and is all the more absorbing for it.
2. It looks like an old-school platformer at first glance but it's really more of an adventure game--sort of a less-action oriented take on the Legend of Zelda formula.
3. The retro vibe comes in part from its pixel art graphic style. If it came out today, I'd say the art was heavily inspired by Undertale but the reality is that Dreaming Sarah actually came out six months before Undertale. Still, we are looking at low-res, bit-era inspired graphics w/ some modern touches here and there for the sake of style.
4. The music is so central to this experience that the composer, Anthony Septim, is mentioned by name before the game starts and nobody else is, not even the person who designed and programmed the thing. Septim's takes influence from music contemporary to the games that inspired its graphical style but it is really quite different from the music you'd expect to hear in those games. It's 90s music but not 90s game music. Suffice to say breakbeats and warm synths are abound. It sounds great and could easily stand alone w/o the game.
5. Dreaming Sarah really just pops you right into things w/o taking any time to explain things. You wake up on a platform in what appears to be some sort of woods.You not given any sort of direction as far as where to go or what you need to do.
6. I've played Metroid before so my first instinct in this situation is to head left. Let us just say that I think the developers of this game have also played Metroid.
7. Or maybe not--one of the better qualities Dreaming Sarah has is that many of its interlaced tasks can be completed in different orders. Of course, access to certain areas is restricted by collecting key items so there is a good deal of linearity to it but you get to do a lot of free-roaming and it seldom feels unproductive.
8. The many varied landscapes featured throughout the game really help w/ this. The whole thing is broadly surreal but some sections more so than others. As mentioned, you start in an only slightly-strange seeming forest but your adventure brings you to slightly strange seeming beaches and very strange looking underworlds, underwater caves and so forth. Every section has a different vibe to it--the music helps a lot--and that keeps the exploration from feeling repetitive.
9. Dreaming Sarah has found a way to make water levels not annoying: it turns you into a fish.
10. Story-wise, there is not much here. There is a brief description what's going on if you look at the game's webpage but that info is not really in the game. You are in this dream world and there is only one thing that it is clear you need to do: go further. Eventually, you get a rudimentary explanation of why you were deposited in this magical forest but that is fairly deep in the game.
11. To me, this feels very much like the kind of game you reach for the controller to play but I guess it was designed for keyboard. Even w/ the controller plugged in, you still get prompted for keyboard key presses. It's kind of weird but the controller layout was intuitive enough it didn't matter.
12. There was one puzzle in this I couldn't solve because I didn't realize there was a puzzle to be solved. That was kinda annoying. The rest of the puzzling is satisfying as far as it goes though. The challenge is more in remembering key places and trying new things as you find new items than anything that requires a serious brain bending.
13. I don't know what any given person might want out of Dreaming Sarah but it delivered what I wanted from it to me. It is a place to lose yourself in for a few hours and a fulfilling experience overall. It relies on a sense of adventure alone to keep it going w/o much in the way of action and is all the more absorbing for it.
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
13 Points on Secret Agent Clank - High Impact Games - 2009 [Sony PSP]
1. I came into this game w/o any sort of familiarity w/ the series. I've heard the name Ratchet & Clank in my life but it just blends in w/ so many hero-and-sidekick type games from the formative days of 3D platforming. I don't imagine many coming upon this review will share my perspective but I am going to write it anyway. I am a warrior.
2. This is a gaiden game and a bit of fan service for fans of the Clank character. I dunno... I guess he's normally silent but he talks a lot in this one. You see, Secret Agent Clank is not just a clever title. This is a send-up of the James Bond series and Clank plays the central roll. The overall gist is Ratchet has gone amok and Clank goes on the job to figure out what's going on.
3. The technical presentation here is top notch. They're not going for a photo-realistic style but the cartoonish graphics are crisp and smooth--w/o the jagged edges that sometimes occur in PSP games. Sound design and score are likewise thoroughly polished. Of all things, I was not expecting to be so impressed by the production of this game in particular and yet here I am.
4. The voice work deserves special notice. We are obviously not looking for Oscar-type drama here but the actors make the voices really jump from the screen and their performances could hold their own w/, say, those on Batman: The Animated Series.
5. So, yeah, looking at and listening to this game is awesome. Actual game-play could charitably be described as uneven. High Impact Games bit off more than they can chew w/ this one. In addition the core stealth/action mechanics, there's battle arenas, multi-character puzzle solving missions, racing, a shmup level,Tetris-like block puzzles and even extended length rhythm games. I am not sure what the budget would look like to execute all of these things competently but the developers clearly did not have it.
6. There's four playable characters (well, three plus a group of three or four), which is about three more than you need if anyone is counting. This is just fan service as far as I can tell so that doesn't really work for me given this is my intro into the franchise.
7. For what it's worth, what I consider the main gameplay works really well. When playing as the titular Secret Agent Clank, you get a broad variety of weapons and techniques to make your way through each level. Stealth is an option and encouraged in may places but you can generally fight your way through throngs of enemies if things go sideways. I personally enjoy this style of gameplay quite a bit and find planning my routs such that I can soften up a group of enemies through stealth before going guns ablaze quite satisfying.
8. Unfortunately, there are also enforced stealth sections where you lose automatically upon being sighted. Does anyone like this shit? I hate it. By all means punish me for being spotted but give me a fighting chance. An automatic game over is just cheap.
9. For the fan service sections you play as Ratchet and some Incredibles-style super hero called Captain Qwark. These really feel chucked in for the sake of it. They are simple arena stages where you have to survive and kill waves of oncoming enemies w/ little respite from this formula. The Ratchet stages you just run around and spam your special weapons until it's done. Captain Qwark sections have a bit more depth but are mostly salvaged by their sense of humor rather than fun gameplay.
10. Several puzzle solving sections where you control a group of small robots fare a bit better. The puzzles aren't exactly Portal... or anywhere close to Portal. Actually, they are all really easy and when it does offer up some challenge it tends to be more about doing something quickly rather than solving a more involved puzzle.
11. The story is presented exclusively through cut scenes in between sections. These have the same high production values as the rest of the game and are probably its strongest suit. I am more of a fan of games that find creative ways to incorporate narrative into gameplay but I'm a huge nerd so who cares what I think.
12. Holy shit, the final boss battle in this is way too long.
13. Secret Agent Clank ends up being nearly impossible to review in brief and the reason for that is the same reason gameplay suffers: it tries to do too much. There are so many features that I wish were better fleshed out and so many that I wish weren't there that pinpointing the best and worst is an exercise in futility. I did sincerely enjoy many of Secret Agent Clank's best sections but spent at least an equal amount of time bored or frustrated. Playing this first, I am not turned off the Ratchet & Clank series entirely but it's doubtful I will be seeking another out any time soon.
2. This is a gaiden game and a bit of fan service for fans of the Clank character. I dunno... I guess he's normally silent but he talks a lot in this one. You see, Secret Agent Clank is not just a clever title. This is a send-up of the James Bond series and Clank plays the central roll. The overall gist is Ratchet has gone amok and Clank goes on the job to figure out what's going on.
3. The technical presentation here is top notch. They're not going for a photo-realistic style but the cartoonish graphics are crisp and smooth--w/o the jagged edges that sometimes occur in PSP games. Sound design and score are likewise thoroughly polished. Of all things, I was not expecting to be so impressed by the production of this game in particular and yet here I am.
4. The voice work deserves special notice. We are obviously not looking for Oscar-type drama here but the actors make the voices really jump from the screen and their performances could hold their own w/, say, those on Batman: The Animated Series.
5. So, yeah, looking at and listening to this game is awesome. Actual game-play could charitably be described as uneven. High Impact Games bit off more than they can chew w/ this one. In addition the core stealth/action mechanics, there's battle arenas, multi-character puzzle solving missions, racing, a shmup level,Tetris-like block puzzles and even extended length rhythm games. I am not sure what the budget would look like to execute all of these things competently but the developers clearly did not have it.
6. There's four playable characters (well, three plus a group of three or four), which is about three more than you need if anyone is counting. This is just fan service as far as I can tell so that doesn't really work for me given this is my intro into the franchise.
7. For what it's worth, what I consider the main gameplay works really well. When playing as the titular Secret Agent Clank, you get a broad variety of weapons and techniques to make your way through each level. Stealth is an option and encouraged in may places but you can generally fight your way through throngs of enemies if things go sideways. I personally enjoy this style of gameplay quite a bit and find planning my routs such that I can soften up a group of enemies through stealth before going guns ablaze quite satisfying.
8. Unfortunately, there are also enforced stealth sections where you lose automatically upon being sighted. Does anyone like this shit? I hate it. By all means punish me for being spotted but give me a fighting chance. An automatic game over is just cheap.
9. For the fan service sections you play as Ratchet and some Incredibles-style super hero called Captain Qwark. These really feel chucked in for the sake of it. They are simple arena stages where you have to survive and kill waves of oncoming enemies w/ little respite from this formula. The Ratchet stages you just run around and spam your special weapons until it's done. Captain Qwark sections have a bit more depth but are mostly salvaged by their sense of humor rather than fun gameplay.
10. Several puzzle solving sections where you control a group of small robots fare a bit better. The puzzles aren't exactly Portal... or anywhere close to Portal. Actually, they are all really easy and when it does offer up some challenge it tends to be more about doing something quickly rather than solving a more involved puzzle.
11. The story is presented exclusively through cut scenes in between sections. These have the same high production values as the rest of the game and are probably its strongest suit. I am more of a fan of games that find creative ways to incorporate narrative into gameplay but I'm a huge nerd so who cares what I think.
12. Holy shit, the final boss battle in this is way too long.
13. Secret Agent Clank ends up being nearly impossible to review in brief and the reason for that is the same reason gameplay suffers: it tries to do too much. There are so many features that I wish were better fleshed out and so many that I wish weren't there that pinpointing the best and worst is an exercise in futility. I did sincerely enjoy many of Secret Agent Clank's best sections but spent at least an equal amount of time bored or frustrated. Playing this first, I am not turned off the Ratchet & Clank series entirely but it's doubtful I will be seeking another out any time soon.
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
13 Points on God of War: Chains of Olympus - Ready at Dawn - 2008 [Sony PSP]
1. The one thing Sony always tried than its competition to do is bring its franchises onto its handheld systems whole hog. They did this to greater and lesser success but in the case of Chains of Olympus, there is remarkably little compromise.
2. The question then is are God of War games any good? The answer to that question is: yeah, they are pretty good.
3. You play as an angsty red-painted fellow named Kratos who is some kind of Greek god (or not depending on where you are in the series's timeline). The other gods are making you do stuff and its pissing you off so, while you do continue to do what they ask, you stoutly refuse to do it w/o periodically stopping to yell at the sky about how angry you are.
4. The main appeal of God of War games is the combat and Chains of Olympus is no exception. It's got a certain button-mashing flow which feels to me like it's cribbed straight from old bit-era arcade and console games. Think Streets of Rage or Final Fight. You definitely get better the more time you put in but there is a sense where you are not executing each move consciously, just playing through by feel.
5. This does lead us to what I feel is the most major compromise made for PSP: the controls. There are other changes but the biggest one is it moves dodge from the right stick to a combo of both shoulder buttons and the left stick, I found this made it much less useful and I was constantly doing it accidentally or I would dodge straight into whatever attack I was trying to avoid or any number of upsetting surprises. It was frankly no big deal but it's something you are gonna notice coming to this game from other titles in the series.
6. The overall presentation though: very impressive. This is a handheld game from 2008 and in 2018, it does not feel at all like an old game to me. Or, maybe I'm what's old. Don't know, afraid to check.
7. Graphically, I dunno, if you count frame rates or ever talk about anti-aliasing w/ your boring-ass friends, maybe you will care about the loss of fidelity vs. the home console releases. I personally think this shit looks great and it gives you everything you want out of the series: giant set pieces, massive bosses and realistic violence (Rated M for Mature). If you are worried about the number of pixels hitting your optic nerve in a given time frame, I am not sure that you are reading the right list-based review blog.
8. The one main issue I find as far as visuals is actually something Chains of Olympus has in common w/ every release in the God of War series is that it is so dedicated to its cinematic vistas that it does not give you any control of the camera. For the most part, the camera is mostly very well scripted but this just gets a rebellious rise out of me. Don't tell me what camera angle to use, Dad!
9. Also in common w/ the console version of the game: an absolutely infuriating overabundance of quick time events. The number of times I died during combat is actually far less than the number of times I died as a result of repeatedly failing quick time events. Yeah, I know I am bad everything but screw that. I get you are trying to get some player involvement into scripted sequences but I don't care. I hate it.
10. Number 9 is absolutely why I called God of War games "pretty good" rather than "really good" in number 2. I mean, yeah, there is a lot of stuff that's less than stellar about it. The story is completely uninteresting and the voice actor who play Kratos is unintentionally hilarious but neither of these things gets in the way of the games doing what they do well. The quick time events spoil the flow of the action and it can be pretty egregious at times.
11. In addition to combat, Chains of Olympus mixes it up w/ a bit of very mild exploration and puzzle solving. This is on the order of, "Oh that door is locked? Find a switch" or the first and easiest block moving puzzle in a Zelda game. It kind of irks me when developers include these kind of things without fleshing them out properly but it really works to give you a breather in this case.
12. The exploration is tied into an RPG-mechanic where you find things to give Kratos a bit of extra oomph. You can upgrade weapons, magic, maximum life, etc. based on things you find along with rewards from killing enemies. This is a bit superfluous if you ask me. If you are making a game based on combat, why not make it so all your combat options are unlocked at the start and then rather than having later portions require the existence of a certain skill have them require the mastery of it? This I just don't know.
13. I can easily recommend this game to anyone who likes action games. If you are knew to God of War, Chains of Olympus provides as good an introduction as any game in the series. If you've played some and just want more, Chains has you covered too. What can confidently say is if you want to be in direct control of an unintentionally hilarious character that rips apart a bunch of Greek shit, this is the game for you.
2. The question then is are God of War games any good? The answer to that question is: yeah, they are pretty good.
3. You play as an angsty red-painted fellow named Kratos who is some kind of Greek god (or not depending on where you are in the series's timeline). The other gods are making you do stuff and its pissing you off so, while you do continue to do what they ask, you stoutly refuse to do it w/o periodically stopping to yell at the sky about how angry you are.
4. The main appeal of God of War games is the combat and Chains of Olympus is no exception. It's got a certain button-mashing flow which feels to me like it's cribbed straight from old bit-era arcade and console games. Think Streets of Rage or Final Fight. You definitely get better the more time you put in but there is a sense where you are not executing each move consciously, just playing through by feel.
5. This does lead us to what I feel is the most major compromise made for PSP: the controls. There are other changes but the biggest one is it moves dodge from the right stick to a combo of both shoulder buttons and the left stick, I found this made it much less useful and I was constantly doing it accidentally or I would dodge straight into whatever attack I was trying to avoid or any number of upsetting surprises. It was frankly no big deal but it's something you are gonna notice coming to this game from other titles in the series.
6. The overall presentation though: very impressive. This is a handheld game from 2008 and in 2018, it does not feel at all like an old game to me. Or, maybe I'm what's old. Don't know, afraid to check.
7. Graphically, I dunno, if you count frame rates or ever talk about anti-aliasing w/ your boring-ass friends, maybe you will care about the loss of fidelity vs. the home console releases. I personally think this shit looks great and it gives you everything you want out of the series: giant set pieces, massive bosses and realistic violence (Rated M for Mature). If you are worried about the number of pixels hitting your optic nerve in a given time frame, I am not sure that you are reading the right list-based review blog.
8. The one main issue I find as far as visuals is actually something Chains of Olympus has in common w/ every release in the God of War series is that it is so dedicated to its cinematic vistas that it does not give you any control of the camera. For the most part, the camera is mostly very well scripted but this just gets a rebellious rise out of me. Don't tell me what camera angle to use, Dad!
9. Also in common w/ the console version of the game: an absolutely infuriating overabundance of quick time events. The number of times I died during combat is actually far less than the number of times I died as a result of repeatedly failing quick time events. Yeah, I know I am bad everything but screw that. I get you are trying to get some player involvement into scripted sequences but I don't care. I hate it.
10. Number 9 is absolutely why I called God of War games "pretty good" rather than "really good" in number 2. I mean, yeah, there is a lot of stuff that's less than stellar about it. The story is completely uninteresting and the voice actor who play Kratos is unintentionally hilarious but neither of these things gets in the way of the games doing what they do well. The quick time events spoil the flow of the action and it can be pretty egregious at times.
11. In addition to combat, Chains of Olympus mixes it up w/ a bit of very mild exploration and puzzle solving. This is on the order of, "Oh that door is locked? Find a switch" or the first and easiest block moving puzzle in a Zelda game. It kind of irks me when developers include these kind of things without fleshing them out properly but it really works to give you a breather in this case.
12. The exploration is tied into an RPG-mechanic where you find things to give Kratos a bit of extra oomph. You can upgrade weapons, magic, maximum life, etc. based on things you find along with rewards from killing enemies. This is a bit superfluous if you ask me. If you are making a game based on combat, why not make it so all your combat options are unlocked at the start and then rather than having later portions require the existence of a certain skill have them require the mastery of it? This I just don't know.
13. I can easily recommend this game to anyone who likes action games. If you are knew to God of War, Chains of Olympus provides as good an introduction as any game in the series. If you've played some and just want more, Chains has you covered too. What can confidently say is if you want to be in direct control of an unintentionally hilarious character that rips apart a bunch of Greek shit, this is the game for you.
Monday, April 2, 2018
13 Points on Emiliy Is Away Too - Kyle Seeley - 2017 [PC]
1. AIM was put to rest late in 2017. Fortunately, Emily Is Away Too can fill that Instant Messenger shaped hole in your heart.
2. This game consists 100% of mashing on the keyboard and pretending to type into a simulated chat window. It is actually really good.
3. The only sound effects in game are the stock sounds which seem to have been lifted straight from the original software. Realism!
4. The way Emily Is Away Too incorporates music is really clever. Whoever is talking to you sends a link to the in-game version of of YouTube. That opens in your browser in stylized web page made for the game w/ an actual YouTube video embedded in it which you can just play and listen to in the background. Viola! Licensed music w/o the license.
5. I found myself listening to Soulja Boy Tell 'Em at some point. Ummmm.....
6. You play as a young man sitting in front of the computer and typing things two young women in 2007. It is clear from the outset you have at least some romantic interest in both of these women and they may have some similar feelings for you.
7. Any time you have a chance to talk, you get three choices of what to say. You have to select one response and then mash on the keyboard and it types out what you actually respond. This is a little Mass Effect in that your actual response does not match verbatim what you input but there's no real surprises. I also found that it was really rare that I did not want to respond any of the options I was given.
8. There were some moments early on where I was nervous that the game was finding clever ways of giving me the same results no matter what answers I put in. It becomes clear as you play though that what you say in Emily Is Away Too actually matters and the landscape of the game changes because of it.
9. Number 8 is what makes the narrative in Emily Is Away Too more effective as a game than it would in any other medium. The sense of choice and purpose draws you into the protagonist's shoes. You are made to understand the story as if you are one of the characters in it.
10. To me, it was pretty obvious what choices were "right" as far as it goes. Presuming you don't want these young women to hate you, you do simple things like not lie to them and if you are romantically interested in one of them, you have to ask them out. It is pretty easy to see how you can get you some lovin' if that's what you're after.
11. This being said, for a more realistic experience, you can be the grand fuck up you are in real life and they will react accordingly.
12. This is where a lot of tension in Emily Is Away Too comes from. You are torn between roll playing how you think the protagonist might act, acting how you would actually act or acing like some idealized version of yourself. Playing through again will reveal what other outcomes you could have had but, you know, you only get to play it the first time once.
13. If you are looking for inspiration for getting into narrative game design, look no further than Emily Is Away too. It is simple, effective and built in such a way that it makes sense for the story to be told via game play. It is also just believable and touching in a way that few games are. This is one of those games where if you are inclined to play such a thing in any given moment, this will quite definitely work for you in that moment. It is a game designed seemingly w/ a clear goal in mind and achieves its aims unquestionably.
2. This game consists 100% of mashing on the keyboard and pretending to type into a simulated chat window. It is actually really good.
3. The only sound effects in game are the stock sounds which seem to have been lifted straight from the original software. Realism!
4. The way Emily Is Away Too incorporates music is really clever. Whoever is talking to you sends a link to the in-game version of of YouTube. That opens in your browser in stylized web page made for the game w/ an actual YouTube video embedded in it which you can just play and listen to in the background. Viola! Licensed music w/o the license.
5. I found myself listening to Soulja Boy Tell 'Em at some point. Ummmm.....
6. You play as a young man sitting in front of the computer and typing things two young women in 2007. It is clear from the outset you have at least some romantic interest in both of these women and they may have some similar feelings for you.
7. Any time you have a chance to talk, you get three choices of what to say. You have to select one response and then mash on the keyboard and it types out what you actually respond. This is a little Mass Effect in that your actual response does not match verbatim what you input but there's no real surprises. I also found that it was really rare that I did not want to respond any of the options I was given.
8. There were some moments early on where I was nervous that the game was finding clever ways of giving me the same results no matter what answers I put in. It becomes clear as you play though that what you say in Emily Is Away Too actually matters and the landscape of the game changes because of it.
9. Number 8 is what makes the narrative in Emily Is Away Too more effective as a game than it would in any other medium. The sense of choice and purpose draws you into the protagonist's shoes. You are made to understand the story as if you are one of the characters in it.
10. To me, it was pretty obvious what choices were "right" as far as it goes. Presuming you don't want these young women to hate you, you do simple things like not lie to them and if you are romantically interested in one of them, you have to ask them out. It is pretty easy to see how you can get you some lovin' if that's what you're after.
11. This being said, for a more realistic experience, you can be the grand fuck up you are in real life and they will react accordingly.
12. This is where a lot of tension in Emily Is Away Too comes from. You are torn between roll playing how you think the protagonist might act, acting how you would actually act or acing like some idealized version of yourself. Playing through again will reveal what other outcomes you could have had but, you know, you only get to play it the first time once.
13. If you are looking for inspiration for getting into narrative game design, look no further than Emily Is Away too. It is simple, effective and built in such a way that it makes sense for the story to be told via game play. It is also just believable and touching in a way that few games are. This is one of those games where if you are inclined to play such a thing in any given moment, this will quite definitely work for you in that moment. It is a game designed seemingly w/ a clear goal in mind and achieves its aims unquestionably.
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